PRTG Network Monitor vs Splunk Observability Cloud comparison

Paessler GmbH and Splunk are both solutions in the IT Infrastructure Monitoring category. Paessler GmbH is ranked #7 with an average rating of 7.9, while Splunk is ranked #10 with an average rating of 8.5. Paessler GmbH holds a 4.2% mindshare in IM, compared to Splunk’s 1.1% mindshare. Additionally, 91% of Paessler GmbH users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 94% of Splunk users who would recommend it.

PRTG Network Monitor

Read 101 PRTG Network Monitor reviews

6,972 Views
4,667 Comparison Views

91% willing to recommend

Splunk Observability Cloud

Read 50 Splunk Observability Cloud reviews

1,733 Views
1,045 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

PRTG Network Monitor

Splunk Observability Cloud

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 6, 2025

PRTG Network Monitor and Splunk Observability Cloud compete in the network monitoring and observability category. PRTG Network Monitor seems to have the upper hand for small to medium environments due to its ease of deployment and cost-effective pricing, while Splunk Observability Cloud offers superior advanced performance monitoring capabilities, making it better suited for enterprise-level applications.

Features: PRTG Network Monitor is praised for its rapid deployment, reliable alert systems, and flexible sensor deployment that allows for customized monitoring capabilities. It requires no separate licenses for different features, providing an all-in-one solution. Splunk Observability Cloud stands out with its robust log searching, comprehensive dashboards, and ability to analyze large datasets for advanced performance monitoring. It offers extensive tools for monitoring cloud-native applications.

Room for Improvement: PRTG Network Monitor could improve its template management, make map creation more intuitive, and enhance distributed monitoring capabilities. Users find its advanced cloud monitoring features limited and its email-based support slow. Splunk Observability Cloud may benefit from better log navigation, enhanced automation, improved endpoint protection, and reduced pricing to compete more effectively. Its setup is complex and resource-intensive.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: PRTG Network Monitor provides straightforward deployment focused on on-premises environments but lacks support during non-Europe business hours, relying on forums and online resources. Its one-stop setup facilitates quick implementation. Splunk Observability Cloud supports cloud and hybrid environments with a flexible licensing model. However, its customer support involves manual configurations and lacks the simplicity of PRTG’s deployment. Users find Splunk’s tech support helpful but encounter complex setup procedures, especially with multiple data sources.

Pricing and ROI: PRTG Network Monitor offers cost-effective pricing for small to medium businesses, providing good ROI by reducing downtime and managing resources efficiently, although scalable licensing can escalate costs in larger environments. Splunk Observability Cloud has higher costs, justified by its extensive features and integration capabilities, but is perceived as expensive compared to alternatives, especially for smaller deployments. PRTG provides an affordable entry, while Splunk offers more comprehensive, albeit costlier, observability solutions.

To learn more, read our detailed PRTG Network Monitor vs. Splunk Observability Cloud Report (Updated: February 2025).

Buyer's Guide

PRTG Network Monitor vs. Splunk Observability Cloud

February 2025

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

PRTG Network Monitor

Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring

7th

Ranking in Cloud Monitoring Software

8th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

101

Ranking in other categories

Network Monitoring Software (5th)

Splunk Observability Cloud

Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring

10th

Ranking in Cloud Monitoring Software

9th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability (11th), Container Management (8th)

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2025, in the IT Infrastructure Monitoring category, the mindshare of PRTG Network Monitor is 4.2%, down from 4.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Splunk Observability Cloud is 1.1%, up from 1.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

IT Infrastructure Monitoring

Featured Reviews

Tochukwu Uzomba

Solutions Architect at Boch Systems Company Limited

Efficiently monitor networks across regions with seamless setup and robust feature set

PRTG Network Monitor is easy to set up. Within a few minutes, it is operational. It is an all-in-one monitoring solution without extra costs. For example, we set it up for an insurance company with branches across Africa. We are able to monitor from Lagos without installing anything in the branches, using the agentless feature. We just put in the IP address and the parameter, and we monitor from those ends. Additionally, all the sensors are very useful. Most people are interested in the bandwidth monitoring sensor to see what bandwidth the users are consuming. The pricing is affordable compared to SolarWinds.

Read full review

Lakshmi Padaga

Java Developer at U.S. Bank

Collaborates performance metrics with log data to pinpoint the exact cause of issues and offers error detection

Splunk APM is a robust tool with many capabilities. There are always areas for potential improvement to enhance its functionality and user experience. For Splunk APM, there could be simplified navigation, like streamlining the user interface to make navigation more intuitive for our users, especially those new to APM, which can enhance usability. We can provide more customization options for dashboards and visualizations to help users tailor the platform to their specific needs. There could be more integration capabilities with a wider range of third-party tools and platforms would also be beneficial. By focusing on these areas, Splunk APM can enhance its value proposition, improve user satisfaction, and better meet the evolving needs of organizations monitoring their application performance.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"We can see trends for a lot of different things, such as hard drive space and bandwidth usage. We can see and plan for the future by knowing, "We're sort of at 75% capacity now. In three months time, we know we're going to be up to 90%,so we need to plan ahead for it, getting upgrades booked in place." Since things like this take time and effort, it's handy to see trends into the future of where our company is going."

"PRTG Network Monitor helps us quickly and easily discover a large number of sensors, so we can spend minimal time monitoring customer sites."

"We use the remote probes a lot for our branch offices. Instead of deploying the full instance of PRTG, we'll put a remote probe out there. This simplifies the whole deployment for us."

"I can create my own program sensor. This means I can add extra monitoring capabilities into the already fundamentally strong foundation."

"The best feature is that it lets me know what is going on. I need to know if something has gone down, I need to know if something is running very slowly. PRTG tells me that."

"There is a simplicity to setting up the extra sensors. It's really easy for us to build infrastructure and start monitoring very quickly."

"The solution has excellent redundant features."

"PRTG is integrated on Windows."

More PRTG Network Monitor pros

"The ability to create custom dashboards is one of the best features and that's typically why most people deploy Splunk. Users can create dashboards for just about anything."

"We haven't really experienced any glitches or bugs."

"Splunk APM provides a holistic view of the application. Unlike other APMs, Splunk's service map is quite effective."

"It is a great resource for us because we have so many different data sources and to be able to aggregate that and put it through a concise dashboard or an alert really helps."

"The product's deployment phase is good and very easy because it is done with OpenTelemetry for most of the parts."

"The data collection from our VMs, containers, databases, and backend components is valuable."

"The solution monitors attacks or unauthorized access to the information we want to protect."

"Once configured correctly, the analysis reporting the Splunk APM provides is better than that of the other APM tools."

More Splunk Observability Cloud pros

Cons

"The Desktop app is good but it can be really sluggish at times, especially when you're editing different elements."

"PRTG Network Monitor can improve the reports. In the reports, you have to give an alert for that SMS and email, the emergency calls and downtimes have to be reported accordingly. You have to enable email services or an SMS gateway service to receive more alerts at the proper time."

"I have an issue with DFS, distributed file services... there isn't one by default. Taking into account the difference between DFS and DFSR as well would be great."

"They should work on syncing the solution with Gmail."

"Their penetration within the market could be much better. If their pricing was lower, even though it's reasonable now, it might help them achieve this."

"PRTG Network Monitor should improve the NetFlow dashboard, there is no flexibility, and the NetFlow is not meeting the business needs. Additionally, they are missing part of the configuration management."

"When using PRTG Network Monitor it is beneficial if you have prior experience with it, the user interface could improve."

"PRTG's documentation could be improved."

More PRTG Network Monitor cons

"The solution's machine learning deployment is hard and should be made user-friendly."

"The implementation can be more user-friendly."

"The dashboards are used mainly to visualize information about the infrastructure, but it isn't easy to construct or use the dashboards. While we tried to resolve the issue by calling support, it would be easier if they had an AI co-pilot to identify the problem and help you solve it."

"This solution is difficult to configure and the instructions are complex."

"They need more EDR functionalities."

"There are some predefined metrics.......we may want to create customized metrics."

"The solution should have more sensors regarding fiber intelligence for security measures."

"In the next release, I would like to see more integration with other solutions."

More Splunk Observability Cloud cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Pricing for PRTG Network Monitor is a nine out of ten. It meets my company's budget and monitoring requirements. My company is on a perpetual license."

"Right now, the smallest sensor pack that they have is just a bit out of range for me, as a business. This kills me, as I need the product. Therefore, there is always a balance between needing to buy it or continuing their free version."

"The price of PRTG Network Monitor is more expensive than other solutions, such as OP Network Manager."

"We have an unlimited perpetual license, so we just pay support costs and it can scale throughout the organization."

"The price of PRTG Network Monitor is reasonable."

"It is about £4,500 for the first year, then about another 15 to 20 percent annually after that. So, we are looking at about £1000 running costs a year. When you think about how much an outage costs per minute, it's negligible."

"If you're looking for a cost effective software I’d suggest this product."

"We've got 1,000 nodes and I believe it's a few hundred quid a month."

More PRTG Network Monitor pricing and cost advice

"Licensing cost is the biggest argument I get from those divesting from Splunk. There are those within our organization who say we are going to go to other tools since Splunk is too expensive."

"The solution's pricing is costly."

"Splunk offers a 14-day free trial and after that, we have to pay but the cost is reasonable."

"Splunk APM is expensive."

"Splunk's infrastructure monitoring costs can be high because our billing is based on data volume measured in terabytes, rather than the number of devices being monitored."

"It appears to be expensive compared to competitors."

"I am not in that circle, but we are currently licensing based on our queries. That is working out for us. Previously, it was by volume of data, and now, we can store as much data as we want."

"I would rate the price of Splunk Infrastructure Monitoring as an eight out of ten, with ten being the most expensive."

More Splunk Observability Cloud pricing and cost advice

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Comparison Review

it_user174738

IT Developer at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

May 31, 2015

Nagios vs. Zabbix vs. PRTG vs. Spiceworks vs. Solarwinds Network Performance Monitor

I have researched a quite a few network monitoring tools which can be used for various monitoring purposes of not only the servers, but the intermediate routers as well. There are majorly three types of these softwares. Ones which are completely open-source, you can do almost anything you want…

Read full review

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

54%

Computer Software Company

Government

Financial Services Firm

18%

Computer Software Company

15%

Manufacturing Company

Retailer

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What is the best network monitoring software for large enterprises?

PRTG network monitor is one of the best tool i have ever used for the monitoring. It have auto discovery option. it avoid the configuring the device in PRTG. It automatically discover the device an...

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What do you like most about PRTG Network Monitor?

The tool is integrated with our email for the alerts.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for PRTG Network Monitor?

The prices are very high for PRTG Network Monitor. That's why I'm using the free100 sensor license.

See all answers

What do you like most about SignalFx?

The most valuable feature is dashboard creation.

See all answers

What needs improvement with SignalFx?

There is room for improvement in the alerting system, which is complicated and has less documentation available. We sometimes encountered issues in setting up alerts. The custom detector could be m...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for SignalFx?

The main purpose of using Splunk APM is to optimize our application. We use Splunk APM primarily to understand how the application works, how it uses resources, and its response time in connection ...

See all answers

Comparisons

Zabbix vs PRTG Network Monitor

Compared 8% of the time

LibreNMS vs PRTG Network Monitor

Compared 8% of the time

Centreon vs PRTG Network Monitor

Compared 6% of the time

SolarWinds NPM vs PRTG Network Monitor

Compared 6% of the time

PRTG Enterprise Monitor vs PRTG Network Monitor

Compared 6% of the time

More PRTG Network Monitor Competitors

Observe vs Splunk Observability Cloud

Compared 22% of the time

Splunk ITSI (IT Service Intelligence) vs Splunk Observability Cloud

Compared 8% of the time

Dynatrace vs Splunk Observability Cloud

Compared 6% of the time

Rancher Labs vs Splunk Observability Cloud

Compared 5% of the time

ITRS Geneos vs Splunk Observability Cloud

Compared 2% of the time

More Splunk Observability Cloud Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

PRTG Network Monitor

February 2025

Download PRTG Network Monitor product report

Buyer's Guide

Splunk Observability Cloud

February 2025

Download Splunk Observability Cloud product report

Also Known As

No data available

Splunk Infrastructure Monitoring

Overview

PRTG Network Monitor runs on a Windows machine within your network, collecting various statistics from the machines, software, and devices which you designate. PRTG comes with an easy-to-use web interface with point-and-click configuration. You can easily share data from it with non-technical colleagues and customers, including via live graphs and custom reports. This will let you plan for network expansion, see what applications are using most of your connection, and make sure that no one is hogging the entire network just to torrent videos.

To monitor a large IT environment, it's important to be able to scale PRTG up. Paessler PRTG Enterprise Monitor includes all the proven capabilities of PRTG Network Monitor, which are enhanced by exclusive ITOps Board for a service-oriented, central overview of multiple PRTG servers.

Paessler GmbH

Splunk Observability Cloud combines log search, data integration, and dashboards for seamless monitoring, enhancing infrastructure visibility and security. Its cloud integration and scalability support diverse environments, improving operational efficiency.

Splunk Observability Cloud offers comprehensive monitoring tools with user-friendly interfaces, enabling end-to-end infrastructure visibility. Its real-time alerting and predictive capabilities enhance security monitoring, while centralized dashboards provide cross-platform visibility. Users benefit from fast data integration and extensive insights into application performance. Despite its advantages, improvements could be made in integration with other tools, data reliability, scalability, and cost management. Users face challenges in configuration complexity and require better automation and endpoint protection features. Enhancing AI integration, alerts, and adaptation for high-throughput services could further improve usability.

What are the key features of Splunk Observability Cloud?

Log Search: Efficiently search and analyze log data for enhanced insights.
Data Integration: Fast integration across platforms for comprehensive visibility.
Custom Dashboards: Powerful and adaptable dashboards for real-time monitoring.
Cloud Integration: Seamless integration with cloud services for scalable solutions.
Application Performance Monitoring: Advanced tools for improving application performance.

What benefits and ROI should be expected?

Infrastructure Monitoring: Improved visibility and monitoring across infrastructure components.
Operational Efficiency: Enhancements in data analysis lead to efficient operations.
Business Resilience: Supports adaptability and swift responses to changing needs.
Security Management: Enhances threat identification and response through real-time alerts.
Compliance Support: Aids in meeting compliance and auditing requirements effectively.

In industries like finance and healthcare, Splunk Observability Cloud is implemented for application performance monitoring and infrastructure metrics. Its ability to track incidents and analyze machine data benefits network infrastructure, while distributed tracing and log analysis aid in tackling security threats. Organizations often integrate it for compliance and auditing purposes, enhancing visibility into network traffic and optimizing performance.

Splunk

Sample Customers

Jameson Bank, Sidnix, RungeICT, MedicalAnimal, Truck-lite, GamingGrids, The Covell Group, Forsythn County Schools, NetMass, Musgrove Park Hospital, Lanes Health, Columbia Southern University, Vodafone, Intrust Bank

Sunrun, Yelp, Onshape, Tapjoy, Symphony Commerce, Chairish, Clever, Grovo, Bazaar Voice, Zenefits, Avalara

Buyer's Guide

PRTG Network Monitor vs. Splunk Observability Cloud

February 2025

Free Report: PRTG Network Monitor vs. Splunk Observability Cloud

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